黑洞社区

John Murphy鈥檚 daughter Caroline Murphy has pledged to continue lobbying Murphy Group to become a workers鈥� co-operative, after quitting the board of the firm after failing to secure support for a change in ownership structure.

Speaking to 黑洞社区, Murphy said she was 鈥渃ommitted to using any influence I have鈥� to affect the change and will continue to petition the family-owned Maryland Trust, which owns 拢656m-turnover Murphy Group, to put at least her 20% stake into an employee share ownership scheme.

The family-run contractor鈥檚 shares are held in a trust for the benefit of the Murphy family 鈥� John Murphy鈥檚 four children, including Caroline, and his wife 鈥� a spokesperson for Caroline Murphy said.

Caroline Murphy 鈥� who is also well known as a trade union activist and campaigner for LGBT, mental health and survivors of sexual violence 鈥� was made deputy chair of Murphy Group by her late father and founder of the Murphy Group, John Murphy, who died in 2009.

Murphy said she tried to advance employee-ownership within the Murphy Group 鈥渁s a concrete proposal over the last 12 months鈥� and was 鈥渉opeful鈥� the firm would reconsider their stance.

She described employee-ownership as a 鈥渘atural extension of my father鈥檚 views鈥�.

She denied suggestions her family had fallen out: 鈥淎bsolutely not. It鈥檚 really healthy in business and in a family to have energetic and creative engagement. If we all think alike, how disappointing would that be?鈥�

She said the employee-ownership proposal was inspired by a 2011 visit to see Mondragon, a federation of workers鈥� co-operatives in the Basque region with a 鈧�1bn (拢830m) engineering arm, and UK employee-owned construction consultants Arup and Make.

John Murphy emigrated to Britain from Ireland in the 1930s and worked on RAF airfields during the Second World War, before founding J Murphy & Sons in 1950, which later became the Murphy Group.